Opportunity down payment program

Amazon.com Inc expects groceries and household products to account for over half of its business in India in the next five years, as it moves to broaden offerings in the segment and foray into areas such as fresh produce. Amit Agarwal, the India head of Amazon, said in an interview on Friday that groceries and goods such as creams, soaps and cleaning products, were already the largest product category on Amazon in terms of number of units sold in India. “I would not speculate on when we would launch AmazonFresh but, absolutely, if you ask me the next five years of vision - from your avocados to your potatoes, and your meat to your ice cream - we’ll deliver everything to you in two hours,” he said. AmazonFresh, which launched more than a decade ago in the U.S. market, is the company’s flagship fresh grocery delivery service. In India, Amazon currently offers some groceries via a service named Pantry. It has also tied up with local vendors in four cities for … [Read more...] about Amazon to double down on groceries; foray deeper into fresh produce in India

Vietnam International Business Centre debuts
The Vietnam International Business Centre (VIBC) was officially inaugurated in Hanoi on October 10 following a successful three-month trial.
The VIBC’s combined commercial and exhibition centre is the first of its kind in Vietnam, attracting famous brands including Viettel, FPT, Nino, and Pico.
It houses pavilions of the Canadian, Egyptian, South African, and Argentinean embassies, as well as of leading Vietnamese craft bodies such as the Engineering Association, Traditional Craft Village Association, Lighting Association, and Vietnamese Culture Association.
The organising board said VIBC’s International and Associations Areas will create a space promoting Vietnam’s economic image to the world and encouraging cooperation between foreign and domestic businesses. Participating brands can also consult directly with their Vietnamese customer base.
On the opening day, the VIBC’s investors donated VND1 billion to the … [Read more...] about BUSINESS IN BRIEF 14/10

Vietnam beefs up dairy industry
Vietnam is striving towards producing one million tonnes of fresh milk from a total milk cow herd of 500,000 between now and 2020, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Husbandry Department.
So far, 200,000 dairy cows are being raised in Vietnam , up from only 41,240 in the year 2000. Although milk production has increased sevenfold at 456,000 tonnes today compared to 2001, the total production only meets 28 percent of national demand. Last year, nearly 1.1 billion USD was spent on importing milk from abroad.
Cows are now predominantly reared in Hanoi; Ho Chi Minh City; the northern provinces of Son La, Tuyen Quang, Vinh Phuc; the central province of Nghe An; and the southern provinces of Long An, Lam Dong and Tay Ninh.
Dairy producers such as TH, Moc Chau and Vinamilk are modernising and their production and distribution technology.
With a milk output of 5.1 tonnes per lactation cycle Vietnam ranks highly in … [Read more...] about BUSINESS IN BRIEF 7/9

Shares stall on sluggish trade
Shares on the HCM City Stock Exchange fluctuated during yesterday's session before closing nearly unchanged at 432.50 points. Advancers, however, outnumbered decliners by a more clear-cut margin of 136-85.
The value of trades totalled VND1.18 trillion (US$56 million), slightly below last Friday's level, on a volume of over 68 million shares.
Meanwhile, the VN30 Index, tracking the exchange's 30 leading stocks, advanced by nearly 0.4 per cent to 509.99 points. Of the shares tracked by the index, three hit their ceiling prices, including HCM City Infrastructure Investment Co (CII), Vietinbank (CTG) and financial conglomerate Ocean Group (OGC).
Seven of the shares in this group lost 0.3-1.8 per cent of their value, including Sacombank (STB), Vietcombank (VCB) and insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH). Along with Vietcombank, the leading share on the market by capitalisation, runner-up PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) also dropped 1.9 per cent.
During yesterday's … [Read more...] about BUSINESS IN BRIEF 12/6

No deadline sought for disbursements in home loan program The Saigon Times Daily HCMC – The HCMC Real Estate Association (HoREA) has proposed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) not set a deadline for disbursements of the VND30-trillion home loan program to give civil servants and low-income people the opportunity to buy homes. HoREA wanted no deadline for the disbursement of the home loan package to make life easy for low-income homebuyers and other beneficiaries of the program. HoREA said the SBV intended to complete disbursements of the credit package in three years ended March 31, 2016, while the Government’s Resolution 02/NQ-CP dated January 7, 2013 does not mention a deadline. According to the SBV, loans pledged by banks account for 96.28% of the VND30 trillion, or some VND28.8 trillion (US$1.28 billion), and 66.6% has been disbursed, equivalent to over VND20 trillion. Nearly 43,000 households have been able to get new homes under the program, with 70% of them … [Read more...] about No deadline sought for disbursements in home loan program